Two players associated with the San Antonio Spurs squared off Tuesday night in the London International Basketball Invitational as Spurs’ Tony Parker and France defeated Spurs draftee Ryan Richards and Great Britain 82 to 60.
Parker led the French with a game high 23 points while Richards finished with 0 points, 0-for-2 field goals, and two rebounds in just eight minutes of action. During the game FIBA tweeted that they were sorry no box score was available online. With no box score, I can’t tell how the other Spurs’ draftee Nando De Colo did for France.
The game was not available online due to issues with the London broadcasting media, but I relied on my overseas pal Sam Neter of Hoopsfix.com for live game tweeting. Here is a recap using Neter’s tweets.
Neter made a point to point out that Parker came out on fire as he scored 10 of France’s 20 first quarter points. The French led 20 to 18 after the first quarter.
Going into halfitme Parker remained at 10 points but Portland’s Nicolas Batum had his own 10 points as France led 34 to 29.
In the third quarter, Neter pointed out that Spurs’ draftee Ryan Richards still hadn’t seen the floor and Chicago’s Joakim Noah had four points and six rebounds for France.
France’s lead began to grow halfway through the third quarter according to Neter 43 to 36, followed by Parker throwing an alley-oop to Batum.
At the end of the third quarter, France led 60 to 48 and that would be the last Great Britain saw of Parker as he finished with 23 points.
With eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Richards finally made his way into the game with Great Britain trailing 64 to 54.
Parker and France will face Australia tomorrow while Richards and Great Britain will face Croatia in day two of the London Olympic test games.
(Photo: Everyjoe.com)
